eldest son of Ming dynasty

In April of the [-]th year of Zhengde, there was an endless stream of pedestrians on Liangjing Avenue, which had been completed for two years.

Among the many faces traveling between the north and the south, there was a young scholar wearing a long gown and a square scarf resting in a teahouse under the poplar trees on the roadside.

His face is handsome, his eyebrows are like swords, and his tea-holding hands are as slender as a woman's. At first glance, he looks like a son of an official who has not done any heavy work since he was a child.

Not long after he was here, several carriages and horses suddenly appeared on the fork in the road. The carriages were extremely exquisite, and there were petal-like wood carvings on the windows. A slightly wrinkled but still shrewd look at the corner of the eye was revealed in the gap.

The visitor took a look at the scholar in the teahouse and heard the people around him say "it is indeed this person", so he hurriedly came down without any hesitation.

This is a woman in her 30s, with her hair pulled up, revealing the charm of a mature woman.

She brought her maid and servants to the young scholar and bowed generously.

"You Sanchun, a folk girl, has met Attendant Yang."

Yes, this person is Yang Shen.

Yang Shen is the son of Yang Tinghe. He is 28 years old this year. In the sixth year of Zhengde, he took part in the imperial examination and finally passed the imperial examination and passed the first place.

Because he had been a companion to the emperor when he was still the prince, and he was also the son of Yang Tinghe, the elder of the court, so considering these factors, there is a high probability that he would not become the number one scholar, lest boring people gossip.

However, Yang Shen's articles were really brilliant. On the one hand, it was due to his family background, and on the other hand, he also followed Wang Hao to learn the theory of managing the world and applying it. Therefore, both the marking officer and the emperor himself felt that if they did not He was selected as the number one scholar, but he stopped eating because of choking and did not put his talents first.

Zhu Houzhao finally made the decision and selected him as the top pick.

Originally, the marking officials were a little worried. They thought that posting the imperial list would definitely cause discussion, but they didn't expect that there would be no noise in the capital.

Since ancient times, there has been no first in literature and no second in martial arts, but Yang Dacai's talent and reputation really make people think that he should be the number one scholar.

Perhaps, this is recognized as the first of the three great talents of the Ming Dynasty.

There is a saying in Sichuan called Xiangru Fu, Taibai Poetry, Dongpo Prose, Sheng'an Kedi.This Sheng'an department is Yang Shen.

Yang Shen, whose courtesy name is Yongxiu and whose nickname is Sheng'an.

In the sixth year of Zhengde's reign, after he became the top scholar in high school, he went to the Hanlin Academy as usual and was assigned an official position in the Imperial Academy to compile and compile, ranking from the sixth grade.

In the seventh year of Zhengde's reign, he was promoted to the rank of Attendant of the Hanlin Academy and was promoted to the sixth rank.

In the eighth year of Zhengde's reign, the emperor appointed him as the Deputy Yuanzheng of the Library Garden, ranking fifth.

At the end of the ninth year of Zhengde, Yang Shen was ordered to enter the palace and serve as an attendant in the attendant room.

This time he appeared in Huai'an Shanyang on the Liangjing Avenue because he had to perform an important government matter.

In You Sanchun's eyes, Yang Shen was a heavenly figure. He was of noble birth, highly talented, and had a close relationship with the emperor. He was the number one scholar at a young age, and before he was thirty, he was already an attendant in the chamber.

That's all, this kind of person has a very strict upbringing, and is full of elegance in every move. It's just that she's not young enough, otherwise she would have got into his bed even if she did.

She was also sharp-eyed, and when she saw a few drops of sweat on Yang Shen's forehead, she instantly felt distressed.

And the person who can make such a person bow down and work tirelessly for days in such a season is probably the emperor who is even taller.

"...Somehow, His Majesty seemed to know that the Youdong family was going to lavish extravagance in every possible way. He had already conveyed the order earlier, but then he was still worried and ordered me to check the emperor's palace along the way. The Youdong family came by chance, so we went together Take a look."

"Yes."

This You Sanchun is the owner of Huiyanji. During the four years of Zhengde, she tried her best to maintain a good relationship with the government. She gained the emperor's trust with her obedience and ability to do things, so she quickly grew into a big salt merchant known all over the world.

By the tenth year of Zhengde, all the salt fields in the Ming Dynasty had been auctioned off. Led by Hui Yanji, there were seven other salt merchants who jointly operated hundreds of salt fields in the Ming Dynasty.These salt merchants all have royal backgrounds, and a varying number of shares are directly held by the royal family.

They contracted salt fields, hired kitchen farmers, produced salt, and marketed it all over the world. Today, the annual auction revenue of the salt fields in Lianghuai, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Changlu is as high as 400 million taels.

This does not include the fact that these salt merchants themselves profited and paid dividends to the emperor.

If you really want to calculate it, the annual revenue that salt brings to the national treasury will be more than 1000 million taels. Of course, this is this year's goal, and it is actually the result of year-by-year growth in the past few years.

On average, the profits each of the eight salt merchants distributed to the court each year gradually increased from the initial 30 taels to 80 taels.

This number is huge because with the development of sea trade in recent years, the inflow of silver from overseas has been rising steadily, and in the prosperous years, the population has increased.As a human being, you have to eat salt.

In addition, of course, some people feel reluctant to part with it, because the royal family collects a round of money through auctions, and then cuts another cut through dividends, cutting the head and the tail twice in a row, and there is not much left in the end.

For this reason, some salt merchants choose to retain the last knife.

This is also possible, and the court does not explicitly prohibit it, but it is difficult for them to grow in scale, and better salt farms are usually not auctioned to them to reduce their profit margins.

After several years of evolution, the imperial merchants have basically taken the lead.

Salt tax has always been the top three tax sources in the thousand-year history of the feudal dynasty, and Zhu Houzhao certainly would not let it go.

For people like You Sanchun, who owes everything she has to the emperor, she would naturally be able to flatter the emperor.

News came from Beijing that in the 11th year of Zhengde's reign, the emperor might leave the capital to inspect Jiangnan.As soon as they heard that this was the case, several salt merchants started to think of various ways to hope that the emperor could pass through them.

As a result, many places were still unsure about the emperor's itinerary, so they began to build palaces for the emperor. This kind of extravagance and waste was reported some time ago, which made the emperor a little angry, and Zhu immediately ordered them to stop.

But this kind of Zhupi has no practical effect. He can build it under another name. After it is built, the emperor will not use it. He can also bribe other important ministers. In short, it has its role.

Later, there was no other choice. The emperor only chose three places to stay in Huai'an, Suzhou and Hangzhou, and did not go to other places. In addition, he also sent people around him to inspect various places, and the standards of construction must not be infinitely improved.

Because salt merchants will compare themselves with each other, for fear that they will be neglected and others will win.

This led to Yang Shen's trip.

Along the way, You Sanchun kept saying: "It has been ten years since Your Majesty took the throne, and His Majesty's benevolence has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Now the country is in a prosperous age, and even the houses of ordinary people have been built. So please Yang Please consider it leniently, as some of the sacred land in the south of the Yangtze River is not a waste."

Yang Shen was unmoved. His upbringing was deeply bound to the emperor, so the emperor meant his actions, so that he would have a smooth road ahead, and he would not mess around for a few taels of silver.

"If the Youdong family is really rich, it would be better to donate some of it to the emperor than to build a palace here. Your Majesty's actual words are that it is a waste to build such a good house and only live in it a few times."

This woman would also say: "This should be okay, Your Majesty... It would be nice if you could come and stay a few more times. Besides, it's not like we haven't donated money to Your Majesty, but His Majesty said that business is business, and doing business is not Take as much as you can, otherwise it’s not a rule.”

"Then keep it and donate it when the court needs money. At that time, it will not be a dividend, and your Majesty will certainly not refuse."

There is a mystery in Yang Shen's words.

The emperor wants money?
Could it be that the use of troops has been rumored for several years?
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"Linjiang Immortals · Rolling Yangtze River East"

the river is long and tempestuous, it was like a hero. Success or failure turned empty. Aoyama is still there, How Many Suns.

White-haired fisherman Qiao Jiangzhu, used to watch the autumn moon and spring breeze.A pot of muddy wine rejoiced to meet each other.Many things, ancient and modern, are in the middle of a joke.